Le journal de Annie Boban – Dnevnik Annie Boban – Annie Boban’s Diary (12 ) dio

Jeudi 20 Août 1981
Milan a travaillé toute la journée à San Bruno. Je téléphone à la compagnie d’autobus qui me dit que le Bus qui va à Brisbane s’arrête à San Mateo Drive. Nous y allons donc après avoir passé 1h chez Dr. Allen et en effet quelque 10 mn plus tard l’autobus arrive. Milan va le soir chez Nedeljko Miličević et Miljenko Dugandžić et revient avec $4.000 et une invitation pour le lendemain au restaurant Nick. Nedjeljko et Milan se sont aperçus qu’ils sont nés le même jour, seulement Nedjeljko 4 ans après.

Vendredi 21 Août 1981
Milan travaille toute la journée. J’appelle le restaurant Nick pour réserver des places pour dîner le soir. Doreen et Milan Cvitanović viennent avec nous. Très bonne soirée et nous revenons vers 11h30. Milan avait peur de ne pas avoir assez à manger et il n’a pas pu finir son beefsteak. Les enfants s’étaient préparés depuis 3 jours pour trouver un menu pour le dîner d’anniversaire à Milan et ont été déçus de ne pas pouvoir le célébrer ce soir-là. Mais, je leur promets de remettre cela à dimanche soir et tout le monde sera content. Je suis aller ouvrir un compte de banque pour le “FOND ZA OBRANU HRVATSKE” = “LE FOND POUR LA DÉFENSE DE CROATIE”

Samedi 22 Août 1981
Sophie s’en va à 8h30 avec Debbie. Elle travaillera toute la journée à South San Francisco. Milan va chez Léon Galić, chez son frère tôt le matin et revient vers 12h. Il mange, va faire la sieste et me dit qu’il ne mangera pas le dîner ce soir, qu’il mangera chez Léon Galić. O.K. Vers 4h je me décide à manger pour nous 6 et je prépare de la choucroute, des saucisses et des restes de purée. Quelque minutes avant de manger, Milan se réveille et en voyant le dîner, se décide à en prendre un peu. A peine assis, le téléphone sonne et Catherine prend la communication. Quelqu’un lui dit “May I speak to Mr. Mile, please? Catherine tend le téléphone à Milan et quand Milan le prend, quelqu’un lui dit en Croate “Les bombes sont prêtes. Elles vont exploser ce soir. Bye”. Je vois que Milan a été très surpris et qu’il a eu peur de quelque chose. Il me demande d’aller avec lui vers le living room et me dit ce qui s’est passé. Je lui et dit tout de suite d’appeler Dennis, mais personne ne répond. Ensuite il appelle Judy, mais Dennis nous a donné un mauvais numéro si bien qu’il n’est pas possible de l’avoir. Nous mangeons mais le cœur n’y est pas et en mangeant, une idée me vient.

Si par exemple, une bombe cette nuit explose au Consulat yougoslave et que la communication téléphonique a ete enregistrée, Milan sera inculpé. Je dis cette idée à Milan et nous décidons d’appeler la police. Milan leur dit ce qui s’est passé et ils arrivent 15 mn après. Ce policier connaît toute l’histoire de Milan avec le FBI et en entendant ce qui a été dit au téléphone, il appelle un autre policier plus haut placé que lui. Ce 2ème policier arrive et donne quelques coups de téléphone et nous dit que dans 15 à 20 minutes, un chien entraîné à chercher les bombes va faire le tour de la maison. Le premier policier et Milan ont déjà fait le tour extérieur. Entre-temps, les policiers nous disent que c’est préférable de ne pas dormir ici cette nuit. On ne sait jamais. Milan appelle sa sœur Kata pour qu’elle vienne nous chercher mais elle n’est pas à la maison. Il appelle ensuite Zdenka qui arrive quelques instants après. Nous partons en chemises de nuit, brosses à dent etc.., dans des sacs en papier. Les garçons sont excités car ils savent qu’ils passeront la nuit avec leurs cousins Zlatko et Petar. Milan reste avec la police et descendra plus tard avec son truck. Tout en parlant, Zdenka me fait peur car elle est persuadée que si quelque chose va se passer, cela ne sera pas à la maison mais à South San Francisco et évidemment ce soir là où il y a même “Party” et Sophie y travaille. Elle appelle Milan pour lui faire  part de cela et qu’il appelle Milan Cvitanović pour qu’lui évidemment ne veut rien dire pour ne pas provoquer une panique. Mais, je dis à Sophie de venir directement chez Zdenka. Milan téléphone pour dire qu’il ira chez Léon Galić. La soirée se passe calmement. Sophie arrive vers 9h et elle va dormir avec Catherine chez les Nikolić, les filles de nos amis. Milan revient vers 10h30 et est allongé sur le divan en train de regarder la télé, mais il s’endort tout de suite. Quant à moi, bien que je sois fatiguée, je ne peux pas dormir et je regarde un film jusqu’à 1h30 du matin et je pense “Trouverons-nous la maison en ruines quand nous reviendrons?”

Dimanche 23 Août 1981

Thursday, August 20, 1981
Milan worked all day at San Bruno. I called the bus company which told me that the Bus going to Brisbane stops at San Mateo Drive. So we go there after spending 1 hour at Dr. Allen’s and indeed some 10 minutes later the bus arrives. Milan goes in the evening to Nedeljko Miličević and Miljenko Dugandžić and returns with $4,000 and an invitation for the next day to the Nick restaurant. Nedjeljko and Milan realized that they were born on the same day, only Nedjeljko 4 years later.

Friday, August 21, 1981
Milan works all day. I called Nick’s restaurant to reserve seats for dinner that evening. Doreen and Milan Cvitanović are coming with us. Very good evening and we returned around 11:30. Milan was afraid he wouldn’t have enough to eat and he couldn’t finish his beefsteak. The children had been preparing for 3 days to find a menu for the birthday dinner in Milan and were disappointed that they could not celebrate it that evening. But, I promise to put it off until Sunday evening and everyone will be happy. I went to open a bank account for ” FOND ZA OBRANU HRVATSKE” = “CROATIA DEFENSE FUND”

Saturday August 22, 1981
Sophie leaves at 8:30 with Debbie. She will be working all day in South San Francisco. Milan goes to Léon Galić, to his brother early in the morning and returns around 12 noon. He eats, goes to take a nap and tells me that he won’t eat dinner tonight, that he will eat at Léon Galić’s. O.K. Around 4 a.m. I decide to prepare dinner for the 6 of us and I prepare sauerkraut, sausages and leftover mashed potatoes. A few minutes before eating, Milan wakes up and sees the dinner, decides to have some. Barely seated, the phone rings and Catherine takes the call. Someone says to her “May I speak to Mr. Mile, please? Catherine hands the phone to Milan and when Milan picks it up, someone says to him in Croatian “The bombs are ready. They will explode tonight. Bye”. I see that Milan was very surprised and that he was afraid of something. He asks me to go with him to the living room and tells me what happened. Then he calls Dennis, but no one answers. Then he calls Judy, but Dennis gave us the wrong number so it’s not possible to get hold of her. We eat but the heart is not in it and while eating, an idea comes to me.

If, for example, a bomb explodes last night at the Yugoslav Consulate and the telephone communication has been recorded, Milan will be charged. I tell Milan this idea and we decide to call the police. Milan tells them what happened and they arrive 15 minutes later. This policeman knows the whole history of Milan with the FBI and hearing what was said on the phone, he calls another policeman more senior than him. This 2nd policeman arrives and makes a few phone calls and tells us that in 15 to 20 minutes, a dog trained to look for bombs will go around the house. The first policeman and Milan have already made the rounds outside the house. In the meantime, the police tell us that it’s best not to sleep here tonight. We never know. Milan calls his sister Kata to pick us up but she’s not home. He then calls Zdenka who arrives a few moments later. We leave in nightgowns, toothbrushes etc., in paper bags. The boys are excited because they know they will spend the night with their cousins Zlatko and Petar. Milan stays with the police and will come down later with his truck. While talking, Zdenka scares me because she is convinced that if something is going to happen, it will not be at home but in South San Francisco and obviously tonight where there is even a “Party” and Sophie works there. She calls Milan to tell him about this and he calls Milan Cvitanović so that he obviously doesn’t want to say anything so as not to cause a panic. But, I tell Sophie to come directly to Zdenka. Milan telephones to say that he will go to Léon Galić. The evening passes calmly. Sophie arrives around 9 am and she goes to sleep with Catherine at the Nikolićs, our friends’ daughters. Milan returns around 10:30 a.m. and is lying on the couch watching TV, but he falls asleep right away. As for me, although I’m tired, I can’t sleep and I watch a movie until 1:30 in the morning and think “Will we find the house in ruins when we get back?”

Sunday, August 23, 1981
I got up at 5:30 am because Rafo supposedly is going to leave at 6 am to pick up the plums in Santa Rosa. Milan wakes me up and tells me he doesn’t want anyone coming downstairs and seeing me sleeping. How I would like to sleep again! I go into the garage and I change and of course, Rafo does not come down until 7:30. After a too strong coffee, my heart beats at 100 an hour. We are getting ready to leave Zdenka’s house because we have to go to mass in San Jose. We are ready before 10 am and arrive in San Jose at 10:40 am. Milan talks to Father Mate Markota to try to explain what is happening in the Croatian colony and remove people’s fear, but Father Mate refuses. Of course, a church is not a place where politics is done. We leave San Jose at 1:15 and on the way back we find Rafo and his son Petar in Milan’s truck waiting under a bridge. We stop and Rafo explains to us that he is waiting for Slobodan, Zdenka7s brother who has missed the exit from the highway. We arrive at Zdenka and 1 hour later we have lunch or dinner. After that Milan helps Rafo to unload the truck and put the plums in the barrels and while watching TV, I doze. Around 6 o’clock, unable to hold on any longer, I come home, put the children to bed and go back upstairs. Indeed, how did I sleep last night? Three and a half hours, maybe!…But, again, I can’t sleep and it will be around 10:30 when I close my eyes.

Monday, August 24, 1981
Milan will work at San Bruno. Sophie is going to work at Kata. I stay at home doing chopings, banking, cleaning, writing my diary etc. Milan in the evening goes to South San Francisco because there is a meeting of the corporation with bookkeeper Mr. Hing and corporate Lawyer Jacques Fahras. With all the events of this weekend, we have postponed Milan’s birthday for this evening. But, of course, in the middle of dinner, his cousin calls from Chicago and announces that in Chicago, nobody believes that a good lawyer is needed. “Why pay so much money when they are going to jail anyway. Why give money to the Jews? It really makes Milan angry and he has no time to finish eating. Besides, When Milan sees the cake arrives with the candles, he thinks it’s for him, and starts to cry. So we give him the candles to blow out and he’s happy. But the children are disappointed, especially the girls. It will be better next time.

When I go down to the room, Milan tells me what his cousin Filomena Bagarić told him on the phone and when I ask him how it will end, he says “It will end that way that we will all go to prison”. So I ask him if Dennis will work for us. He replies “But, we don’t have any money”. It hurts me and until now I had complete confidence in his freedom. I tell him this: “The only reason you say this is that you don’t want others to talk about you when you’re the only one out of there”. I can’t take it anymore and when Milan leaves, I take the kids and go to the park for about an hour. It relaxes me a bit and when I get home I put the kids to bed and go to bed too. After 1/2 hour of reading, I fall asleep and even wake up the next morning. I didn’t even hear Milan come in. He told me to be between 1:30 and 2 hours.

The next sequence is:
Tuesday, August 25, 1981